If, like me, you have been wondering for decades what the European Parliament is there for, wonder no more. Following a recent vote, the august institution is considering setting up an investigations unit to tackle two humongous European fraud schemes named improbably 'cum-cum' and 'cum-ex'. The first warning that something was afoot came in 1992,…
Before our very eyes!
When it comes to aphorisms, 'Oldie but Goodie' is high on my list of suspect examples. Generally quoted by the generation above mine to fill the void of laughter following a particularly hackneyed joke, it only rolls happily off the tongue when served with lashings of irony. Such was my reaction to a ruling published…
It’s just not cricket
Last month's news from India, that tax residency certificates would no longer be a must for foreigners claiming treaty benefits, will come as a welcome relief to the finance departments of organizations doing business with that great country. Obtaining certificates of residence can be a pain in the neck, especially when they are needed quickly.…
The taxman takes his cut
Initially dubbed 'the war to end all wars', the act of carnage that ended a hundred years ago this week had to later suffer the ignominy of having 'First' stuck at the front of its name. While recognizing the sacrifice of the combatants and the tragedy of 20 million dead, subsequent generations have suggested the…
FANGs ain’t what they used to be
Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google, the tech giants collectively dubbed the FANGs, are hardly going to be digitally quaking in their virtual boots over British Finance Minister Phillip Hammond's Budget announcement last week that he plans imposing a 2% Digital Services Tax on their UK related turnover. Hammond himself admitted it would only be expected…
Playing the residency card
On a recent bus tour of Barcelona, the recorded commentary declared the 'immortal' words of exiled Catalonian President Josep Tarradellas on his return in 1977: 'Citizens of Catalonia, I am here'. This immediately conjured in my mind the immortal line from the BBC's Goon Show: 'Everybody's got to be somewhere.' Great philosophy it aint, but…
Another bite of Apple?
In October 1962, at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, John F Kennedy quietly signed into law the most extra-territorial tax system in the history of the human race. As the world faced MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction), it perhaps wasn't the most important thing on the minds of American CEOs that week. Buried in…
Who wants to live forever?
There was a time, not long ago, when the ideal higher education of a tax specialist was a combination of law and accounting. With the gradual death by asphyxiation of income tax planning, the ambitious young prospective practitioner might add a third arrow to his bow - doctor of medicine. Many would argue that, despite frustrating…
Yes, Minister
Looking confused next to the overhead locker of my assigned Business Class seat on a British Airways flight from Heathrow to New York last year, I was approached by a helpful flight attendant (if that is what stewardesses are called these days) who offered assistance. Pointing to the little picture indicating which mini-compartment was 12A,…
Some like it hot
Political fossil Al Gore’s sequel to his Oscar winning environmental documentary ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ – ‘An Inconvenient Sequel’ – may have underwhelmed at the box office this month, but it provided a timely counterweight to President Donald Trump’s announcement some weeks earlier that the United States was pulling out of the Paris Agreement. Despite the…
Tax Break 